Fast Times At Pinedale High

Pinedale, Wyo., will not soon forget the name Craig Madsen. That was
the alias used by Kevin Carter, a free-lance police informant who posed
as a student at Pinedale High School as part of a 1992 state drug
investigation.

Although he was 23 at the time, Carter's boyish looks made it easy
for him to blend in with his teenage classmates--perhaps too easy. A
Pinedale family has filed a civil suit against Carter, charging that
while he was on assignment at the high school, he had sex with a
17-year-old female family member and supplied alcohol and drugs to
students.

The story has gained considerable notoriety. The tabloid-style
television show Hard Copy headlined its story about Carter "Sex and the
Single Narc.'' But the case also has raised for school and
law-enforcement officials the question of whether students should be
the target of crime-fighting efforts that rely on deceit and
subterfuge. A federal jury in Wyoming will soon wrestle with that
question as it applies to Kevin Carter a k a Craig Madsen.

Before coming to Wyoming, Carter worked for various law-enforcement
agencies as a narcotics investigator in several Utah schools. By all
accounts, his work in that state was trouble-free. In one drug sweep
there, he was directly responsible for 13 arrests.

Carter got into several scrapes in Wyoming, however. While working
undercover in Lyman, he is alleged to have been with teenagers who
stole beer from an American Legion hall and threw an oil drum off an
interstate-highway bridge. He is also being sued by a 15-year-old Lyman
girl whom he dated while on assignment there.

But the suit filed by the Pinedale family has had repercussions
throughout the state. It names 17 defendants, including the state
attorney general, the state Division of Criminal Investigation, the
school district, and various school officials.

Carter's assignment at Pinedale High School was to check out reports
that some of its nearly 200 students were buying LSD from a drug dealer
in Denver. The suit charges that during the monthlong investigation,
Carter turned his DCI-provided apartment into what became known as a
"party house.'' Carter often provided alcohol and drugs to minors, the
suit charges, and youths frequently used his apartment as a place to
have sex.

During the undercover operation, Carter dated the 17-year-old girl
whose family filed the lawsuit. At various times, the suit says, his
supervisor allegedly encouraged him to photograph or videotape the
girl, her 15-year-old sister, and other minors engaged in sexual
activity. According to the suit, Carter also initiated sexual activity
with the 17-year-old on numerous occasions and had sexual intercourse
with her at least once. Carter and the other defendants named in the
suit have denied the allegations. Pinedale school officials have said
they agreed to enroll Carter, but they have denied they were
responsible for his actions.

Robert Brodie, Carter's lawyer, says his client had to run with a
fast crowd to keep his cover. "He was between a rock and a hard
place,'' the lawyer asserts. "He could hardly be an A student and a
goody-two-shoes and get in close with these kids.''

Regardless of the court's findings in the case, Wyoming state
officials already have dissected the Pinedale operation and concluded
that it was bungled at the outset. Two judges and a former FBI agent
appointed by Gov. Mike Sullivan to investigate the matter largely
assigned blame to Carter and his direct supervisor.

The investigators recommended that DCI agents sell drugs to
juveniles only in exceptional cases. But they specifically declined to
recommend banning undercover operations in high schools.

That bothers many school officials and classroom teachers. "In our
eyes, when kids come to school, the school becomes the parent,'' says
Jean Hayek, president of the Wyoming Education Association. "What
parents would willingly entrap their child?''

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.